For once, the slogans were not political. Tens of thousands of Lebanese rallied in the streets of Beirut on Sunday, this time to rally support for social causes, promote their companies and schools or simply enjoy a sunny weekend day with friends and families.

They gathered to run in Beirut’s yearly marathon. In any other country, such a race would merely be seen as a fun sports event. But in Lebanon, where the masses take to the streets mostly to commemorate a political leader’s assassination or to support a militant group, it was refreshing to see people from all sectarian groups stand side by side in a non-politically tainted occasion.

Mirroring the relatively stable situation in the country, the marathon put the spotlight this year on a  health issue rather than security and politics. The slogan: “With strength we run against cancer."

Having an air-conditioned car is a luxury in a country where nearly half the population earns $2 or less a day. Nevertheless, Cairo's horrible traffic can turn that blessing into a curse. The other day, wanting to avoid the city's snarling congestion, I decided to take the metro. The journey turned out to be an exceptional moment that allowed me, a relatively privileged citizen, to connect further with my poorer compatriots.

You don't need to make any move or stretch your muscles to hop up on the 9 a.m. metro. The crowd propels you, sweeping you into its energy and ruckus, and squeezing you into a train car for a whole new kind of traffic.

The train was maddeningly slow, clacking along like an old, wizened beast. I knew I'd be late for an appointment. But I was in a good company, or at least like-minded company: All faces flashed with angst, suspecting something not very pleasing was about to happen.

"We spent 45 minutes on a journey that usually takes 20 minutes," complained a veiled woman who seemed to be in her 40s. Nevertheless, neither the crowd nor the rickety train discouraged a beggar woman in black from hopping up on. I tried to calm myself by reading the leaflets and ads posted inside; some were about how you can get closer to God by praying at night and feeding the poor, while others advertised matchmakers who "apply Islamic standards" when helping one search for a spouse. 

Ministers from OPEC countries decided in Cairo on Saturday to delay until December a decision on cutting production to stem the fall of crude oil prices that have tumbled by more than 60% in recent months.

The meeting came as the global financial crisis and plummeting demand continued to suppress oil prices, which have dropped from nearly $150 a barrel in July to about $54 today. King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, the leading producer in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries, was quoted by a Kuwaiti newspaper as saying that $75 a barrel was a "fair price."

But the decision to take measures to nudge prices up was postponed until an upcoming meeting in Algeria. OPEC President Chakib Khelil said the organization "agreed to take any additional action on the 17th of December to balance oil supply and demand and achieve market stability."

The concern among members of the energy cartel, which decreased production in October by 1.5 million barrels a day, illustrates the shifting fortunes and precipitous downturns jolting the beleaguered world economy. OPEC enjoyed record prices just a few months ago, only to have them evaporate as international markets spiraled downward, energy demand shrunk and leading economies, including the U.S. and members of the European Union, neared or officially entered recession.

The Saudis want to see prices rise by at least $20 a barrel. Saudi Oil Minister Ali Ibrahim Naimi told reporters that OPEC would "do what needs to be done" to bolster prices.

He added: "There is a good logic for $75 a barrel. You know why? Because I believe $75 is the price for the marginal producer. If the world needs supply from all sources, we need to protect the price for them. I think $75 is a fair price."

Qatar's oil minister, Abdullah bin Hamad Attiyah, told the Arab TV news channel Al Arabiya that sinking revenues would damage the oil industry's future, saying that if prices linger below $70 a barrel "investment would freeze, which would lead to a crisis in supply in the future."

The organization's less-stable economic members, particularly Nigeria, Venezuela and Iran, are worried that months of low prices will hurt their national budgets. There is also apprehension that some members may not comply with production quotas and will produce above the cuts. But decreasing world demand is likely to squeeze the cartel well into 2009.

OPEC President Khelil told reporters before the Cairo meeting that "some countries are unable to sell their crude. They can find no buyer. Crude should be taken off the market."

-- Jeffrey Fleishman in Cairo

Photo: Pumping oil in the Middle East. Credit: Reuters

Those who visit Dubai quickly discover that driving is chaotic, fast and dangerous. The traffic police in that part of the oil-rich United Arab Emirates have decided to wage an aggressive campaign against speeding, perceived as the main reason behind the big number of car accidents and casualties.

Recently, they placed 1,000 radars, described as "elegant and smart," along the highways as part of a national effort to discipline lead-footed motorists.

The new high-tech radars do not flash as the normal ones do, and so are less easily spotted by reckless drivers, who slow down only when they feel monitored, Dubai's traffic officials told the website of the Arab satellite channel Al Arabiya.

The radars can also detect motorists who don't keep a proper distance behind cars ahead of them, or those who cut improperly in front of other cars, officials said.

Maj. Gen. John Kelly, the top Marine in Iraq, calls the strategy "the last 10 yards" -- the push to get the Iraqi national and provincial governments to cooperate with each other.

Other than that, Kelly says, the Marine mission in Iraq has largely been accomplished in Anbar province: The insurgency has been routed, reconstruction and economic growth are moving apace, and a semblance of normalcy has returned.

The time has come to "break the dependency" of the Iraqis on the Americans, and to send home a significant portion of the 22,000 troops under his command, Kelly says. Keeping a large number of troops in Anbar could actually be counterproductive.

"My working thesis is 'If we have it, we'll use it and Iraqis won't be doing it,' " Kelly said.

Take the mentoring of the Iraqi army by Marines. "We learned that if you have a type-A Marine out there, the real leader is the Marine captain, not the Iraqi lieutenant colonel."

Kelly, 58, a Marine for 38 years, is in his final months as commanding general of the 1st Marine Expeditionary Force (Forward). He was an assistant commander of the 1st Marine Division during the 2003 assault on Baghdad and the spring 2004 fight in Fallouja. His two sons, both Marines, have served in Iraq.

Under Kelly's orders, Marine combat troops have pulled out of the larger cities in Anbar, security checkpoints have been turned over to the Iraqis, and several of the Marines' larger bases have been closed. Also, steps were taken to reduce the Marines' presence in the everyday life of Iraqis -- all convoys, for example, are now done at night.

Much of Kelly's efforts are aimed at getting officials from the provincial government in Ramadi and the national government in Baghdad to work together on common problems. Click here for the story on a confab at the Iraqi-Saudi border.

-- Tony Perry in Al Asad, Iraq

Photo: Maj. Gen. John Kelly at a meeting to discuss safety for Haj pilgrims. Credit: Tony Perry / Los Angeles Times

Holding a peaceful protest at Cairo University can be perilous. Students, as if concealing drugs or some other illicit contraband, must smuggle banners and leaflets past police stationed at the gates, says Mostafa Maher, a second-year business student. Once on campus, students must be cautious not to be caught in possession of these publications before the protest begins.

Surmounting these obstacles does not end the hassle. Protesters say they are sometimes beaten by plainclothes thugs brought in by the police to intimidate. Other times, Maher says, police resort to different tactics, such as sponsoring a football game at the site of the protest to distract students and eventually thwart the demonstration.

The suppression of protests symbolizes the pervasive influence that campus police have had on student life since 1981. That may be ending. Egypt’s supreme administrative court, saying the independence of universities must be respected, ruled this week that security forces from the Ministry of Interior should evacuate the Cairo University campus.

"This is a positive development that declares the victory of both students and professors," said Maher, who belongs to a group that opposes the government of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.

The court ruled that the constitution guarantees the full independence of universities and research centers that "contribute to refining knowledge and offering sciences that support the society and pave the way for a better future for the country."

Students and others, however, remain skeptical. "It is an excellent and very clear verdict and there is no way any court could change it, but the government will resort to different tricks to prevent its enforcement," said Mohamed Abouel Ghar, professor of gynecology at Cairo University.

An impossible romance between an Arab and an Israeli set against destruction and chaos was the main theme of a Jordanian-produced TV series that won a prestigious television award in New York this week.

"Al-Ijtiyah" (The invasion), which tells love stories at the time of the Israeli incursion into a West Bank city in 2002, became the first Arab production to win the International Emmy Award.

The series, produced at an estimated cost of $3 million and praised for its artistic and technical achievements, was named best new telenovela from among 40 nominees from 16 countries.

Cute, eh?

Not if it grows up to be like many of the stray dogs roaming Baghdad, according to city officials who have launched a campaign to kill the homeless hounds. (The abandoned pooch that's pictured, however, was one adopted by U.S. troops.) Stray dogs, according to authorities, caused the deaths of more than a dozen people in one month alone.

The culling operation, which kicked off last Sunday, was deemed necessary after a spate of vicious attacks by stray animals roaming Iraq's streets. In August, 13 people died after being attacked by stray dogs, said Anam Hamid, head of the environment board on Baghdad's provincial council. His comments were carried in an Associated Press story announcing the dog-elimination campaign, which began in western Baghdad and will eventually move over the Tigris River to the eastern side of the capital.

"We have decided to take action after receiving complaints of rising attacks on people by packs of dogs and reports that some children are refusing to go to school because they're afraid of being bitten," Hamid said.

It is unclear how long the operation will go on. Under former leader Saddam Hussein, stray-dog culls were conducted annually, but they have not taken place amid the chaos of six years of war. In a city lacking animal shelters and experiencing massive displacement, violence and murders, the number of street dogs has soared. Many are strays or offspring of strays, but others have become homeless after being separated from their owners.

Some lucky ones, like the puppy pictured above, get taken in by sympathetic U.S. soldiers who raise them on their bases and often try to take them home when they redeploy to the United States. But those dogs are not immune from the diseases that Baghdad officials say make the city's street hounds so dangerous. In June, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that an Iraqi dog that had been adopted by U.S. forces and brought to the United States had rabies. The 11-month-old dog had lived the previous seven months on a U.S. base with the soldier but had not been vaccinated. Shortly after arriving in the U.S., it fell ill and had to be euthanized.

Military veterinarians and police are conducting the culling, luring the dogs with poisoned meat and then shooting them. U.S. troops were alerted to the plan to prevent friendly-fire clashes erupting between the dog teams and American soldiers unaware of their intent.

-- Tina Susman in Baghdad

Photo credits: Top photo by Tina Susman / Los Angeles Times; bottom photo of a stray dog that sought shade beneath a car in central Baghdad by Saad Khalaf

Thanksgiving dinner for U.S. troops deployed overseas begins with a push by the Philadelphia employees of the federal government's Defense Supply Center to make sure the traditional food makes it to far-flung locations.

This year that means 120,000 pounds of whole turkeys and more than 179,000 pies sent to troops in Iraq, Afghanistan, Bahrain, Dubai and Djibouti.

Also 95,826 pounds of ham, 16,874 containers of stuffing mix, 56,104 cans of sweet potatoes, 131,359 pounds of shrimp and, of course, 10,994 cans of cranberry sauce, and lots more. Total tab: more than $6.5 million.

-- Tony Perry in San Diego

Photo: Turkey at the chow hall at Camp Ripper, Al Asad, Iraq. Credit: Marine Corps

U.S. soldiers at Camp Eggers in Kabul, Afghanistan, enjoyed Thanksgiving with a traditional American meal followed by traditional American pastimes: darts, football and a hot-dog-eating contest.

There were also invited guests from the surrounding community.

-- Tony Perry in San Diego

Photo: Army Col. Marion Gale with guests at the Thanksgiving celebration. Credit: U.S. Army.

Al Jazeera, the "Arab CNN," isn't always considered fair in its reporting on U.S. forces in Iraq.

But that didn't matter when Navy corpsman Ryan Faulhaber saw an Al Jazeera reporter wounded and helpless during the battle this spring in Basra between insurgents and Iraqi troops backed by U.S. Marines.

Braving insurgent fire, Faulhaber dashed into the open to treat the reporter and bring him to safety. "None of the Iraqis were willing to assist the wounded reporter," Maj. Mark Slusher said. "Faulhaber did not hesitate."

Days later, in the same battle, Faulhaber rescued five Marines from a vehicle that had burst into flames when hit with a rocket-propelled grenade. "Same thing again, courage under fire," Slusher said.

Faulhaber, now back at Camp Lejeune, N.C., has been awarded the Bronze Star for bravery, the Marine Corps announced this week.

-- Tony Perry reporting from Al Asad, Iraq

Photo: Navy corpsman Ryan Faulhaber with Iraqi children. Credit: Marine Corps

A rift between the Kuwaiti Parliament and the government of this oil-rich princedom over the visit of a controversial Iranian cleric has escalated into yet another political crisis.

On Tuesday, the Kuwaiti cabinet announced its resignation as three legislators prepared to question Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser al-Mohammad al-Sabahover for allowing the cleric, whom they accused of offending Sunnis, to enter this small Persian Gulf nation a few weeks ago.

The cleric, Mohammad Fali, has allegedly made derogatory remarks about the Prophet Mohammad’s companions, whom the Sunnis revere. Tensions have been reported in the past between the Sunni majority and the Shiite minority in Kuwait.

Although Fali left the country following a wave of protests against his visit, the crisis continued as the three Islamist lawmakers insisted on demanding formal clarifications from the prime minister, a member of the ruling family.

The ruler of the country, Sheik Sabah al Ahmad al Sabah, put on hold the resignation and ordered the ministers to continue attending to their duties until he takes his final decision, according to the State’s news agency, KUNA.

Was he an Iranian arms smuggler or a restorer of religious sites? Was that cocaine he had with him, or salt? And who arrested him: Americans, Iraqis, or someone else? All of those questions surround the brief detention last week of an Iranian man accused by U.S. officials of being a senior officer of Iran's elite Quds Force paramilitary unit.

Read more about the strange case of Nader Qorbani here. His quick release could be a sign of Iran's ability to push buttons in Iraq when it wants something done. Or it could be that Qorbani was not quite the catch the United States initially thought he was, so he was let go. One thing became clear during two days of trying to find out more about the arrest and the release: nobody wanted to discuss the details except perhaps an Iranian newspaper that is considered the mouthpiece of Iran's supreme leader. The paper, Kayhan, boasted Monday that Iran had essentially sprung Qorbani through pressure from its embassy in Baghdad.

Qorbani's Nov. 18 detention might have gone unnoticed, except that it occurred against the backdrop of contentious parliamentary debate over the Status of Forces Agreement, which would let American troops remain in Iraq through 2011. U.S. officials have long accused Iran of fueling the violence in Iraq and say it is doing everything it can to derail the SOFA, which legislators are expected to vote on Wednesday. Iran denies the accusations but has made clear it thinks U.S. forces should leave Iraq now, not three years from now. Read more about debate over SOFA here.

On Tuesday, Iranian hard-line newspapers published editorials and stories describing the pact as a sellout to the United States and urging Iraq to reject it, according to the Associated Press. A popular uprising in Iraq will erupt if lawmakers vote for the plan, one newspaper warned, the AP reports. 

So when the U.S. military announced the capture of a man described as a senior officer in Iran's elite Quds Force, it seemed like a nab the Americans would not want to let drop from public view. After all, it could bolster the American allegation that Iran was actively meddling in affairs in Iraq at a particularly delicate time. Usually, arrests of suspected terrorists, be they from Al Qaeda in Iraq or from Shiite militias supposedly trained and equipped by Iran, are mentioned prominently in military news briefings after the initial detentions are announced.

This time, that didn't happen.

The United States is planning to boost its military support to Lebanon’s army with high-tech tanks, Lebanese media reports said late last week.

Israeli officials expressed their concern over the alleged news stating that the new weapons might fall in the hands of the Muslim Shiite militant group, Hezbollah.

The Lebanese daily An-Nahar reported last Friday that the United States was going to provide Lebanon with dozens of M60 battle tanks to be shipped in batches starting early 2009.

The assault tanks in question are U.S.-made all-purpose vehicles with advanced firepower and mobility at night and under conditions of limited visibility.

While superseded by the M1 Abrams, the M60 series remains in service throughout the world. Egypt has the most, with 1,700, Turkey is second with more than 900 and Israel is third with more than 700.

Having endured public shame and courtroom prying, a British pair convicted of having sex outside marriage on a Dubai beach had their three-month jail sentence suspended today.

An appeals court in the United Arab Emirates upheld the guilty verdict but spared Vince Acors, 34, and Michelle Palmer, 36, imprisonment. The defendants paid $272 each for charges involving alcohol consumption in the incident that unfolded July 5 when they left a Champagne brunch and were arrested hours later on Jumeirah Beach.

The couple, who admitted kissing but denied having sex, were expected to be deported to their native Britain. After the court’s ruling, Palmer was quoted by reporters as saying: “It just proves our innocence after all the bad stuff that was written. That's it.”

Acors and Palmer were convicted in October and quickly became the grist of international headlines and a cautionary tale about Western permissiveness colliding with Islamic values. Dubai is the most liberal of the emirates, but recent pressure from Muslim conservatives has made police more vigilant in combating moral offenses.

The Persian Gulf’s center of glitz and hype, Dubai is speckled with man-made islands stroked by waves from passing yachts. Luxury is so prevalent, it's almost passe. The atmosphere is a bane to clerics. Alcohol is sold, and prostitution is rampant, if discreet.

Acors and Palmer, who was fired from her job with a book-publishing company following her arrest, were center stage in a drama perhaps larger and darker than their tryst. They fueled the blogosphere. They were vilified by some, sympathized with by others and criticized by many for slipping into an unflattering position in an Arab country. 

Hassan Mattar, the couple’s lawyer, told reporters it all ended well: “This is a good result. This means the law in Dubai is just and shows the judge has a good mind and a good heart.”

-- Jeffrey Fleishman in Cairo

Photo: Vince Acors. Credit: Reuters

Talk of weapons was in the air today as Lebanon’s Michel Suleiman began an official visit to Iran, where he met his counterpart, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

The future of weapons held by the Iranian-backed Lebanese militant group, Hezbollah, is expected to be discussed between the two leaders. International and domestic pressure has been mounting on the Muslim Shiite organization to disarm, but Hezbollah has refused to budge, insisting that its arms are crucial for defending Lebanon against Israel.

Iraqi lawmakers, who have become enraged with fellow parliament member Mithal Alusi for his visits to Israel, now have another reason to be angry with the fiery politician. Alusi hired Iraq's leading constitutional lawyer to fight the legislature's attempt to punish him for visiting the Jewish state, and today, he won.

That means Alusi, a secular Sunni Muslim who frequently criticizes Iraq's Shiite-led government, no longer faces prosecution for traveling outside Iraq or for having visited Israel, most recently in September when he attended a terrorism symposium at an academic institute. Upon his return from Israel -- his third trip there since 2004 -- Iraq's parliament erupted in angry debate over what to do about Alusi, who has accused many leading Iraqi politicians of being stooges of Iran.

The session ended with a vote to strip him of his parliamentary immunity and to pursue criminal charges. Alusi immediately threatened to fight the decision in court. His lawyer, Iraqi constitutional expert Tariq Harb, took up the case two days later. Reached by phone today, Harb said the trial lasted two months before the supreme federal Court and that he based his case on a provision of Iraq's Constitution, Article 44. It guarantees Iraqis freedom to travel where they want.

"Removing the immunity is violating the constitution and the Iraqi law," said Harb. This morning, the court found in favor of Alusi, who was reported to be traveling and unavailable for comment.

"I am happy for two reasons here," his lawyer said. "One is because I won the case. And the second is that this proves the Iraqi judiciary is independent, and there is no influence of the executive, legislative or government authorities on it. We have a courageous and daring judiciary," he said.

-- Saif Rasheed and Tina Susman in Baghdad

A legal row between the “king of pop” and a Persian Gulf prince over songs, promises and cash is apparently drawing to an end.

Michael Jackson was about to board his flight to London to appear in court in a lawsuit filed against him for reneging on an agreement with one of the sons of Bahrain's king. But he was advised by his lawyers not to go after they reached an out-of-court settlement “in principal” with the Bahraini royal, Sheik Adbulla Bin Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa.

The legal settlement that is to be signed soon will remain confidential, Bakim Thanki, the royal’s attorney, announced this morning, according to the Associated Press.

The story started when the prince allegedly came to the aid of the 50-year-old Jackson, loaning the troubled pop legend millions of dollars to get through rough times. But, according to the royals, Jackson walked out on the prince when it was time to repay.

So the sheik sued Jackson, saying he failed to honor his promises, which were allegedly releasing an album, including songs the royal wrote himself, as well as an autobiography and a stage play. 

As commander of the U.S. Navy's Bahrain-based Fifth Fleet, Vice Adm. William Gortney is the point man for the Navy's reaction to the problem of pirates off the coast of Somalia.

Gortney has urged shipping companies to train their crews in evasive maneuvers and to consider hiring security firms. He has led the move to have more navies send ships to monitor the shipping lanes.

"It's an international problem that needs an international solution," he said.

But progress is slow. For one thing, only a small percentage of ships get hijacked and companies are reluctant to put out money for security firms if the odds are that they won't be needed. Also, no nation seems eager to use its court system to try the pirates.

And then there is the perceptional problem. Gortney says the world has tended to romanticize pirates as colorful, whimsical characters rather than sea-going thieves and thugs.

On this point though he has to admit some fault.

He has a miniature schnauzer named Captain Jack Sparrow, after the Johnny Depp character in Disney's "Pirates of the Caribbean" movies.

-- Tony Perry, Bahrain

Photo: Johnny Depp as Captain Jack Sparrow in "Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End." Credit: Peter Mountain / Buena Vista Pictures

Al Qaeda second in command Ayman Zawahiri is a bloodthirsty militant who exerts all possible effort to justify the killing of innocent civilians, according to his former partner with whom Zawahiri co-founded a notorious Islamic militant organization in Egypt three decades ago.

“Zawahiri finds it legitimate to kill anybody whose country fights Muslims,” said Sayed Imam, an iconic ideologue of the Egyptian group Islamic Jihad, on Monday in his new jailhouse treatise quoted in the independent daily Al Masry al Youm. Imam added that Osama bin Laden and Zawahiri are “bloodthirsty and remain determined to commit mass killings.”

The scathing treatise, published in sequels in the local press, seeks primarily to renounce violence and bash Al Qaeda. In today’s installment, Imam, who is serving a 25-year sentence, tears apart the logic of the religious fatwas Al Qaeda uses to rationalize the killing of civilians. 

“The killing of civilians in blocks, trains, markets, mosques or elsewhere is a declaration of impotence to face armies of enemy states and cowardice. Their impotence drew them to kill civilians who Islamic Sharia said should not be killed,” said Imam.

If they can get approval from the national chain of command, the Marines would like to send more than 15,000 combat troops to Afghanistan.

"We want to expand our footprint and crush the enemies of Afghanistan," Lt. Gen. Samuel Helland, commanding general of Marine Force Central Command, last week told Marines already deployed to Afghanistan.

In orders to one of his commanders, Helland envisions an aggressive campaign of chasing and confronting the Taliban throughout the country. "We will go where the mission takes us and where the enemy is located," he wrote to Col. Duffy White.

On one point Helland is unmovable: "I will not tolerate any violation of detainee handling procedures."

For the rest of the story about  Marine plans for Afghanistan, click here.

-- Tony Perry, reporting from Forward Operating Base Delaram, Afghanistan

Photo: Marines of the 2nd Battalion, 7th Regiment, learn from a traveling general that the Marines are back in Afghanistan "to stay." Credit: Tony Perry / Los Angeles Times

Marine Lance Cpl. Nathan Smith was among the Marines of the 2nd battalion, 7th regiment sent to Afghanistan in the spring for what was meant as a mission to mentor Afghan police. The deployment proved much more violent.

"We had to adapt and overcome, like Marines have been doing since 1775," said Smith, 20, of Wisconsin Rapids, Wisc.

For the rest of the story about the embattled Two-Seven, go to Marines got more than they bargained for in Afghanistan

Tony Perry, Forward Operating Base Delaram, Afghanistan.

Photo: Lance Cpl. Nathan Smith. Credit: Tony Perry/Los Angeles Times

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An Iranian businessman convicted of spying for Israel has been executed, according to a statement released today by Iran’s judiciary.

Ali Ashtari was reportedly hanged on Monday. The manager of a telecommunications and security equipment company who dealt with the Iranian military, Ashtari was arrested in 2006 and found guilty of cooperating with the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad.

The judiciary statement said: "Ashtari, during the three years of cooperation with Mossad, had carried out a wide-range of activities in favor of Mossad and on some occasions he succeeded in creating good conditions for Israelis."

Iranian state TV showed the balding Ashtari calmly giving what was billed as the confession of a Mossad spy. Ashtari reportedly met with Israeli spooks abroad who gave him surveillance technology to monitor high ranking officials in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards.

“The Israeli spies gave him equipment with built in bugs to be sold to high ranking (military) officials so that Mossad could eavesdrop on everything they said on phones and other telecommunication devices,” said an Iranian journalist who asked not to be named. “He was also given names of Iranian officials and high ranking military people to try to woo them abroad so that Israelis could co-opt them and make them their spies or encourage them to defect”

The charges against Ashtari could not be independently verified. In his confession, Ashtari said: "It was my mistake. .  . I kept choosing the wrong path. Do not repeat the mistakes that I made."

Ramin Mostaghim in Tehran and Jeffrey Fleishman in Cairo

Convicted spy Ali Ashtari. Credit: Reuters

By tradition, the Royal Marines Band deploys as ambulance drivers and stretcher bearers when British troops go to war.

So band members are hard at work at the British-run hospital at Camp Bastion in Afghanistan that provides life-saving emergency care for British and American troops and Afghan civilians. But they haven't forgotten their initial duties.

On Remembrance Day -- the British equivalent of Veterans Day -- band members donned their formal uniforms and provided a morale-boosting concert in the desert for troops and patients.

How was it?

"Top shelf, capital, as they would say," said Gunnery Sgt. Paul Martin, the U.S. Marine Corps liaison to the hospital.

-- Tony Perry at Camp Bastion, Afghanistan.

Photo: The Royal Marines Band during a performance in Britain. Credit: Royal Marines